Gift and Curse
by Aelfeth
Summary: {Phantom of the Opera AU} Princess Elsa had not felt lonely anymore thanks to the 'Angel of Winter' -the Frost Phantom to everyone else, with whom she shares a strange ability. Hidden beneath Arendelle's castle, Elsa is the Phantom's only friend now, after a life of shame and fear. However, a young suitor and the shadow of a prophecy will challenge both their bond and destinies.
1. Prologue - Part I

Hello lovely readers!

I'm Aelfeth. Nice to meet you!

About the story: I came up with this Jelsa (Jack Frost x Elsa) Phantom of the Opera AU after a post on Tumblr. Oh, I'm aelfethart there, by the way. Check it out for sketches and fanart of this story!

This is my first fanfiction ever. I hope you enjoy the reading, and that you let me know! ;)

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**~ PROLOGUE - Part I ~**

* * *

The place was silent enough for the sad echo of an anguished weeping to be heard. It was very dark outside, almost midnight, and the light of the chimney's flames dimly illuminated the spacious room. Sitting in an armchair that looked towards the large windows, there were a man and a small child.

The little girl curled up within her father's arms. She laid her cheek upon the man's chest, feeling some relief in the soft movement of his respiration. The man whispered to her.

"Shhh… Do not cry anymore, my dear," he laid a kiss on top of the girl's head, trying to sooth her tears. "Everything is going to be alright."

The child weakly shook her head against his body in negation.

"Oh yes, it will. And crying will not fix anything; it would only make you sadder. I prefer when you sing", the man continued.

He made an effort to not show his own worry for the sake of the child. He had spent most of the past night awake, and truth was, he didn't know what was going to happen, but her daughter's tears only broke his heart even more.

"I want her back…" the child sobbed. "I am so sorry… I didn't mean to…"

He tightened his embrace at these words.

"Shhh… You will see her soon" he whispered. "She will be okay."

The intensity of her sob started to decrease slowly at his words.

In the contiguous room, a small group of doctors examined a toddler with signs of a very strange hypothermia. The child's mother did not separate from her since the accident, but after two days of useless remedies she began to succumb to despair, as all the blankets and remedies in the castle would not make the cold could go away from her daughter's small body.

However, these were no regular doctors. Desperate to find a solution to her daughter's extraordinary malady, all kinds of quacks and healers were summoned in a frantic attempt to save the little princess' life.

The Queen looked at them in suspense, waiting for a diagnosis. Dressed in an unusual fashion, they surrounded the child in a way she could barely see her daughter. Her sight turned for moment towards a small kid that sat down on a chair, not very far from them, waiting shyly for the adults to finish their task. His blond hair fell down his face as he looked to his feet, taking care of the bags filled with concoctions and strange devices.

After a long while examining the symptoms, the eldest of the group, an old and slightly hunchbacked man, finally glanced at the regal woman. She stood up immediately, her face covered by a veil of fret.

"…So?" her voice trembled.

* * *

In the adjacent room, the little princess' weeping seemed to have stopped.

"_Little Lotte let her mind wander. Little Lottie thought: Am I fonder of dolls or of goblins or shoes?_" the king recited in a low voice.

He was trying to make her daughter smile by telling her –yet again– stories of the North, as he used to do before the girls went to sleep.

"_Or of riddles or frocks?_" he said in a funny tone while wiping away the last of his daughter's tears. "_Or of chocolates?_"

"…Chocolates" whispered then the little girl.

The King looked at her with a broken smile.

"Do you want chocolates, my dear?" he asked, combing her platinum blonde hair back in place with his fingers.

Elsa nodded vaguely. Her father kissed her forehead.

"Very well. I'll call Gerda and she'll bring you som-"

The sound of the door opening behind them cut his sentence. The man glanced back over the armchair and saw Kai, his servant. Before he could even speak, the King of Arendelle lifted his daughter in his arms and headed towards the door, understanding what his presence meant.

"Here, Kai will give you some chocolates" the man said, looking at his servant's eyes, gesturing to make Kai do as he said while handing the princess to him.

Elsa embraced the loyal servant, but stared at her father with sadness when he rushed to the next room.

When he opened the door, he met his wife's teary eyes.

And her smile of relief.

* * *

"The baby girl was lucky. She was only hit on her head, which can be cured. If it was her heart…" the old man mumbled rather casually, while he focused on finding something from his old leather bag.

The royal couple glanced at each other and then at little Anna, carefully tucked up on her mother's arms now. "She'll be fine" he stated, handing them a small crystal bottle filled with a somewhat thick, greenish-glittering substance.

"For the recovery" he added, and the King took the medicament. "The princess' illness will disappear at the pace of the waning crescent. She'll be fully recovered by the new moon."

"How did you know _how_ to treat my daughter?" the Queen asked. "She was the only one to suffer such-" her voice trailed off there.

"I'm no physician, but I do know that to treat sickness you must know what caused them on the first place" the King began to say, "so I can assume you _know_ what caused my daughter's malady".

Mr. Pabbie looked at him. "Yes, your Majesty. I do." he nodded. "But, was it the result of a gift… or a curse?"

"A gift, most definitely" the man replied, no shade of doubt in his assertion. "Please. We _must_ know the origin of it."

"If your daughter is _the_ gift, you'll find the answers within these very walls," the elder stated, "for you are the heir of such knowledge."

The old man kept silence, but it did not last long. The King suddenly realized what the words of Mr. Pabbie indicated.

"Wait… You just said my daughter was _the_ gift. Do you mean there's somebody out there who is _the_ curse? And what does that even imply?"

The king stared at the old man, whose big black eyes subtlety suggested he knew more than he spoke.

"As I said, your Majesty, all you need to know is marked on old parchment in the language of your ancestors. I can't really say anything else" Mr. Pabbie then looked for something more on his old leather bag.

"We were lucky to find you nearby, but what if this happens again?" the Queen intervened.

As if he had anticipated the woman's worry, the man took a pendant with a small glowing crystal in its end from his bag, and proceeded to put it around the little princess' neck.

"This will prevent any harm from that magic, as long as it doesn't hit the heart." Then he moved back, summoning his silent companions. A woman approached to the little boy sitting in the chair, who then began to pack everything, ready to leave the place.

"How can we ever pay you? Ask what you wish for; if it is in our hands, it's yours" the Queen said, tightening the grip to her baby princess.

Mr. Pabbie glanced at one of his female companions, Bulda, who stood next to the small boy.

She looked at the child.


	2. Prologue - Part II

Hello There! ^^

So, here we go! Second part of the Prologue.

I didn't mention it before, but I'm so glad I'm writing this. Fangirling aside, what makes me happy about it is how I enjoyed sharing inspiration with other people. Thus, I want to thank hyesui, not-so-secret-nerd, ocvalkyrie, legendaryfangirl, kureablue, Arialene, disneydirectionerglambert and so many others for their inspiration and feedback. I love you guys! 3

If you have any questions related to this fic, feel free to review, PM me or ask me via tumblr at aelfethart. I'll be glad to solve them!

That is all for now. Enjoy the reading! ;)

-Ael

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**~ PROLOGUE - Part II ~**

* * *

The King tucked Anna in her bed sheets. She was already deeply asleep. Elsa waited silently in her bed for her father to do the same with her. He had read _Little Lotte_ to them again. It was Elsa's favorite tale, and they even made up a song about it. However, he had read it so many times already that Anna started to fall asleep before it even ended.

When he approached to Elsa, she had a deep-thought expression in her face.

"Papa," Elsa called, "is the Angel of Winter _real_?"

"But of course he is, dear" he smiled while tucking her.

"… Then why doesn't he whisper in my head? Like to Little Lotte." Her sweet features looked worried. "I also wheedle mama, I'm kind to my doll too, and I do take care of my shoes… Yet he doesn't speak to me."

Elsa thought that Lotte was very lucky to hear the Angel of Winter. Her father sat by her side and thought for a moment.

"Well, because that is for the Angel to decide. Maybe, instead of whispering to you, he prefers to draw beautiful frosty patterns on your window, or nipping at your nose."

The eight year-old looked down to her little hands.

"Or maybe he is afraid of me…" she added.

"Nobody is afraid of you, my dear" the King replied, lifting his daughter's chin with a caress. "And the Angel of Winter even less."

"But my powers…"

"Your powers are a gift, Elsa. Always be sure of that. You will learn to control them, eventually."

The King tried to reassure his daughter, despite the precautions taken because of her special abilities. Elsa was a child, but not an unaware one; she could notice the changes. The number of servants was reduced by a third, and only the royal family's personal service was aware of the princess' strange gift. The kingdom's small Council and the bishop of Arendelle were informed as well.

* * *

"Agdar… We cannot hide this forever" the Queen had said that afternoon, after they dismissed the librarian and linguist of the court.

The King remained quiet for a moment, looking at the old leather cover of a book with a runic title.

"I know, Idun" he said finally, running his fingers through his golden hair in a tired gesture. "And we won't. The kingdom will know… but in good time. First, we have to find whoever is cursed."

The king pointed at the book with his hand, opening it again on a certain page. He had been making inquiries about Elsa's magic after what Mr. Pabbie's said to him several days before. Was she the only one ever to have such ability? Accounts of Arendelle's royal lineage said no.

The book they finally found in the depths of the castle's library was indeed as the peculiar physician had described. It was writen in Old Norse, and as it was common in the Scandinavian lore, it mixed history with legend. At least, that is what the rulers would have thought, if their own daughter wasn't showing the effects described in that old parchment. The verses worth interest were translated and transcribed on a new piece of paper, and they narrated the following:

_"Vanlande, Kári's son, succeeded his father, 'the Lord of the Wind', and ruled over the Upsal domain. He was a great warrior –rumors had it that he was graced by the god Máni and a very fair man in all his physique, and he went far around in different lands. Once, he took up his winter abode in Arendelle with the king Snow the Old, who wasn't an ally, but it wasn't an enemy. The king's name was not accidental, as he was able to cast the powers of winter. In fact, he was said to be son of Old Man Winter. Snow had a son, Thorri, and three daughters: Fön, Drifa and Mjöl, who also shared his abilities._

_The foreign warrior-king was soon mesmerized by Drifa's cold beauty, and against the advice of his comrades, Vanlande got her in marriage. But in spring, he set out leaving Drifa behind, promising to return by next winter. So he did, to discover he was a father to a son and a daughter, and they rejoiced. But Vanlande was a free spirit, and when spring came back, he wished to leave again to continue with his journeys._

_Drifa was not pleased by his husband's decision. The lovers argued, and Vanlande took the baby boy with him and left. Hurt and angered by Vanlande's felony, Driva sent a message to the troll-witch Hulda. Driva asked her, either that she should bewitch Vanlande to return to Arendelle, or kill him. The witch warned the princess that only love would bring them back together, and the use of magic on matters that could be solved through a natural way could turn very dangerous. But Drifa was too hurt and stubborn to consider Hulda's words, and urged her to do as she commanded._

_The witch performed her magic then, and when this witch-work was going on, a great desire came over Vanlande to go back to Arendelle; but his friends and counselors advised him against it and said the witchcraft of the Arendellian people showed itself in his desire to go back, that surely it was a trap to seize him after he had left his wife. He then became very drowsy, and laid himself down to sleep; but when he had slept for long enough, his men hastened to him to wake him up, only to find him ice cold and dead._

_When Drifa came to know of Vanlande's sad fate, she immediately regretted her doing and went back to Hulda the witch, who said she couldn't change the curse and reminded the princess of the warning she gave her and decided not to listen to. But the princess did not cease her begging, and Hulda said that, since Vanlande was indeed Máni's descendant, it was up to the Moon God to help her._

_The princess prayed to Máni for a fortnight, seeking for redemption and her child back. On the 14th night and under a full moon, she heard Máni's voice on her head. He said that she would be condemned to live without love and her other child, and that her wrong wouldn't be redeemed but in a thousand years._

**Thus, a prophecy came to be**  
** from the Snowfall princess'**  
** affront to love. Despite her plea**  
** her brood was gifted and cursed.**

**Only love can nurse a gift and**  
** Only love can mend the curse.**  
** Only love would right the wrong,**  
** When cold blood forces their split._"_**

* * *

"I don't want you to go again, papa" she mused, suddenly changing the topic and bringing back the King out of his thoughts.

"I have to. I am the King and I have many duties to fulfill," he smiled tenderly at her. "I'll be back before you expect it"

"But what is it that you have to do for the next month?"

"I can't tell. It is a surprise."

"Tell me!" She pleaded.

He shook his head "Then it won't be a surprise, my dear."

"Oh, papa, please!"

"No, honey. I can't tell you I'm going to buy foreign treats for you and Anna. Is that clear?"

"Yes" Elsa giggled in amusement, and added "But I still don't like when you go. I miss you too much."

"I'll miss you too, my dear." He smiled tenderly at her, then leaned and kissed her forehead. "Just remember one thing: when I'm not here, the Angel of Winter will take care of you."

They hugged tightly.

The King left the girl's room as quietly as he could. When he closed the door, the Queen approached to him from behind and hugged him.

"You don't have to go again" she whispered, "not so soon anyway."

That was her way to say she'll miss him so much.

"You know I have to, Idun. I'm so close already" he replied, resolutively "I've been told that in the land of-"

"Adgar" she cut him tenderly, "Elsa is fine. She doesn't need anybody to save her. She needs her father".

Slowly the King turned around to face his wife.

"What if it gets worse? What if she has another accident? You read the prophecy too."

"But she is only a child! How can we even be sure?"

"Idun-" he trailed off, pondering for a second on her wife's plea. "We don't know how the kingdom will react to such news once she becomes of age."

"The people _will_ love her, Adgar" the Queen placed her hands on his back for a soft embrace "Just as much as we do."

* * *

**Author Notes:**

- About King Snow's children's names: Thorri means '_Frozen-snow_', Fön means '_Snowdrift_', Drifa is '_Snowfall_' and Mjöll means '_powdered snow_'. Yeah, not very original, but that's what the actual myth says! ;)

- About The King and Queen of Arendelle: I adapted their names from the Runic inscriptions that appear in the movie (see Disney wiki). I used Idun and Adgar for easy and clear spelling.


End file.
